Telephone goodbyes on TV?

May 8, 2006 7:23 AM

I've noticed that movie and television characters rarely say goodbye on the telephone. They just hang up on each other. Why is this?
posted by futility closet to Media & Arts (25 answers total)

I've always noticed this too, but Seinfeld was usually pretty good about it.
posted by thejoshu at 7:28 AM on May 8, 2006

Wasted words. In a 1 hour TV drama there's usually only around 40 minutes of time to tell the actual story, taking into account credits, commercials, setting up the characters. So superfluous dialogue is done away with, no matter how unrealistic it might seem.

I remember an episode of Dallas where Lucy was on the phone, the caller asked her a question, she nodded and the caller knew what her answer was! Now that's magic!!
posted by essexjan at 7:28 AM on May 8, 2006

There's a huge list of things TV characters never do, unless it has direct relevance to the plot. Like eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, etc. The only time characters are shown driving somewhere is if there's a need for some dialogue. It's just dramatic expedience.
posted by GuyZero at 7:38 AM on May 8, 2006

As Essexjan says. You might be interested in this entry on Jane Espenson's blog which is part of a series on how to write speculative scripts for television. (JE wrote for Buffy and Gilmore Girls.)

Like, sometimes you have to deal with all the social pleasantries that occur when a character enters or leaves a scene. I bet you don't want a quarter of a page of your script eaten up with:

SOME GUY
Hey there, Guy!

SOME OTHER GUY
Hey. It's been a while.

Or

YET ANOTHER GUY
Well, then, I guess I'll be seeing you around...

It's sooo boring and it takes up such valuable real estate.

posted by boudicca at 7:41 AM on May 8, 2006

I don't buy the argument that it's about wasting time. Watch any episode of Friends -- the cast always adlibs 'hey's and 'see ya's when someone physically enters or leaves the scene. That doesn't take any less time than saying 'bye' on the phone would.
posted by chrismear at 7:50 AM on May 8, 2006

And while we're at it, can I ask why, when someone hangs up a phone on TV or film you hear a dial tone? I never hear one when I hang up in real life.

What's behind that?
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 7:54 AM on May 8, 2006

I hardly ever say "bye" on the phone. It seems weird to me, the same way it seems weird to say "bye" to someone I'm going to see again within the next day or two. So I guess I've never noticed when people on TV don't say it.

What I don't understand is how those Gilmore Girls are forever buying coffee or hot dogs from street vendors and never bothering to pay. Is it because they are so pretty? I wish I was pretty enough for free hot dogs.
posted by cilantro at 8:02 AM on May 8, 2006

This is also the kind of thing that some people get a bit obsessed about, and they think it's a big deal, when 95% of the viewers don't care or even notice.
posted by smackfu at 8:09 AM on May 8, 2006

Taken Outtacontext, it's movie short-hand to indicate to the audience that the phone call is indeed over. This audio-cue just helps avoid confusion. Nothing to do with reality. You see it lots of things, where movie 'reality' is completely different from the real world.
posted by slimepuppy at 8:12 AM on May 8, 2006

As everyone seems to be pointing towards, it's "bad TV."
posted by mrmojoflying at 8:29 AM on May 8, 2006

Taken Outtacontext, that very issue was discussed here
posted by bunglin jones at 8:36 AM on May 8, 2006

I was channel surfing the other day and Seventh Heaven was on. One character said to the father, "What is it with your family and never saying goodbye on the phone?" And the father said something vague and then hung up WITHOUT saying goodbye. I don't watch that show for a nunber of reasons, but that moment struck me as very funny!
posted by acoutu at 8:43 AM on May 8, 2006

I was channel surfing the other day and Seventh Heaven was on. One character said to the father, "What is it with your family and never saying goodbye on the phone?" And the father said something vague and then hung up WITHOUT saying goodbye. I don't watch that show for a nunber of reasons, but that moment struck me as very funny!

I always think of this moment when someone asks about this, because Seventh Heaven is the show that I distinctly noticed did this all the time. No one ever said goodbye! The reason is that it's probably by far the show on television that spends the most time with characters on the phone.
posted by lampoil at 8:47 AM on May 8, 2006

Oh, is that why? I wasn't sure why this show was parodying itself, but I thought maybe the fan sites mentioned it a lot. I did a search and found lots of 7H drinking games that include a character hanging up without saying goodbye.
posted by acoutu at 8:53 AM on May 8, 2006

See also "gimme a beer."
posted by kimota at 8:59 AM on May 8, 2006

Taken Outtacontext - There's another reason you often hear the dial tone after the call is terminated in TV, film, and especially in theatre: dynamic tension. A dial tone is a pretty profound tone that can serve as underscore to the moment. It's a short hand way for the director and the sound designer to say "that call was important/emotional/significant to the plot, think about it for a moment while we make you listen to this tone." The use of the tone is overused a lot and tends to cross the line into melodrama, but in the right situation, the sound cue adds a lot to the scene. It also fills in the dead air that normally happens when the actor is hanging up the phone.
posted by zachlipton at 10:02 AM on May 8, 2006

While i doubt it was anywhere close to the first use of it, the X-Files actually made a running joke out of just this issue, where Mulder would hang up on Scully without any kind of farewell or even a clear indication that he was terminating the call.

A bad habit i picked up.
posted by quin at 10:31 AM on May 8, 2006

kimota, I think the beer thing comes from the days when the term "beer selection" meant either having one or not having one. I can recall bars that had only one beer on tap and perhaps one or two in bottle. Nowadays such a request would be met with either a printed Beer List or a long list of draft and bottle choices. No wonder they go for simplicity on TV.
posted by tommasz at 12:07 PM on May 8, 2006

I've never really noticed this. Now I probably will and it's probably going to start really bothering me. THANKS FOR NOTHING;-)

But it seems to me that in many of the examples provided the show's creators do provide for the hang up (i.e., character hangs up in anger, or is cut off). In the X-Files, for instance, Mulder and Scully spent a LOT of time on their cell phones talking to each other and they just had the kind of working relationship that made some of the niceties unnecessary.

Another example that actually did bother me was in Doogie Howser, M.D. He would end every show by sitting down at his computer and typing in some lameass précis of what he'd he learned. They'd always show him firing up his computer and then just typing in the words. No need for him to open a program or file on his completely unique OS, apparently.
posted by orange swan at 12:18 PM on May 8, 2006

(What's wrong with 'gimme a beer'? I often just say 'pint of lager' or 'pint of bitter', and they give me whatever they've got.)
posted by chrismear at 12:21 PM on May 8, 2006

I always thought the people on TV were just too cool to say good bye.
posted by knave at 12:47 PM on May 8, 2006

Chrismear: Because you risk ending up with a Coors Light to drink.
posted by octothorpe at 1:32 PM on May 8, 2006

For the same reason as the rest of these.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 1:43 PM on May 8, 2006

They'd always show him firing up his computer and then just typing in the words. No need for him to open a program or file on his completely unique OS, apparently.

Next time you see typing on a computer screen in movies or TV, note whether there is a cursor or not. I'd wager 99 times out of 100 there is no cursor, and letters just appear at the end of the sentence. This drives me crazy, because to actually use a computer in that way would be awfully infuriating. But it's one of those things that you just have to accept.

Regarding not saying goodbye, I always just assumed that since movie phones give you the dial tone when the other party hangs up, that everyone just knows when the call has ended. :-)
posted by Rhomboid at 3:07 PM on May 8, 2006

Chrismear: Most americans would have no idea what you wanted if you asked for bitter.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 4:18 PM on May 8, 2006